Improvement in water-wheels



No. 42,945. PATENTED MAY 31 1864, o. HA'BKNESS'. WATER WHEEL.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIc ()LNEY H-ARKNE S S, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-WHEELS.

' peeificatiou forming part of Letters Patent No. 4 2.94 5. dated May 31,1864.

and useful Improvement in Turbine Wheels;

and 1 do hereby declarejthat the following specification, taken in connection -with the drawings making a partjo'fthe same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Figure 1 is a partial elevation and partial vertical section of my improved wheel. Fig. 2. is a transverse section on the line w a: through the guides and floats. Fig. 3 is a sec tion through the guides and floats ot' the turbine wheel in most common use. Fig. 4 is a similar section showing a portion of a center vent-wheel on my principle. Fig. 5 is a similar section of a portion of my improved wheel on a larger scale than in Fig. 2. Figs. 6 and 7 are sectionalviows of-anether arrangement of floats and guides upon my principle, thewheel receiving its water at the top and delivering it at thebottoiu insteadof at the side. Fig. 8 exhibits an arrangement for oiling the axles of the friction-carriage. Fig. 9 is a view ofa frictioncarria ge for supporting the spindle and the wheel. x

The principal object of the invention set forth in this specification is to increase the useful efi'ect of the horizontal, or that class of waterwvheels commonly designated as t rbines, by introducing principles of construction which shall cause the power actually developed in any particular case by this variety ,of wheelto approximate more closely to the known power of the head of water'which actuates it.

It has been ascertained after repeated and careful experiments that if water is conveyed through a sluice having convergent sides the velocity of the stream due to the head at the point of discharge is considerably greater than it would be if conveyed through a sluice with parallel sides, and, further, that the velocity decreasesas the angle of divergence of the sides increases. 1 have availed myself of this fact by so constructing the guides through which the water is conveyed to the floats of the wheel that they shall be wider at the point where the water enters than at the point where it strikes the wheel, and thus avoid the diminution of velocity due toco'nducting the water to the wheel through guides wlnch,.as

pass into the framing of the position,

By comparing Fig. 3, which is a section heretofore made,diverge from points abouta common center.

In the accompanying drawings, Figs. 1 and 2, A is the cistern into which the water is admitted. B is an annular chamber separated. from the cistern by the gates a out, which are of unequal size, and consequently control unequal apertures. This chamber is divided into many parts by the curved guides b b b for giving direction to the water. 0 is the wheel, which is provided with the floats a c c, and revolves in a horizontal plane around the, annular chamber B. The lower disk-plate of the wheel 0 is connected with'the spindleshaft D, which works in a journal, I), near the bottom, audis attached at the top to the plate E, in the form of an inverted cone, which is sustained by and rides upon the frictioncarriage, Fig. 9, hereinafter to be described.

The -general-- external-appearance of the machine is similar to others of this class of water-wheels. The planking, which covers the wheel-pit F, surrounds the cistern, the

outer edge of the latter being formed with an overlapping flange, 01, through which bolts floor to keep it in through the guides and floats of the F0urneyron wheel, with Fig. 2, which is a similar section of my wheel through the plane '00- w, the

difi'erence between the shape of the channelways due to the relation of the guides to each other can be plainly distinguished. In the former these guides are upon curves, which diverge from. points located around a common center, the outlet of each channel-wa y nearest the wheel being wider than at the end which communicates with the head 'of water, while in the latter the opposite is the case, each sluice at the end connecting with the cistern being wider than at the end where the water is delivered to the wheel. In the former wheel, which is the nest heretofore known of the classjto which it belongs, the ascertained velocity of the water where it strikes the buckets is eighty per cent. of the velocity due to the head, while in the latter, by the use of the principle before described,'the velocity is, as demonstrated afterv careful trial, ninetyseven per cent., or only three per cent. less tha the theoretical maximum.

Another feature of my invention consists in so construeting the floats 0 c c in the wheel that the wa' ways between them,shall decrease in area as the velocity of the water extremities, and upon such a curve .that the channel shall gradually decrease in width toward the outer periphery of the wheel, In

vFig. 4, which is a plan of a center vent-wheel,

the same principle of construction is et'n loyed,

but as the water is discharged within t ecentral portion of the wheel the channel-ways are narrowed at the outer periphery of the wheel where the water enters, and where the centrifugal action, to increase the velocity of the water, is greatest,

mode of construction, is that the water is made to go through the channel-ways smoothly and wthout the loss from back-action that.

would otherwise be the case.

Another advantage resulting from the construction of the floats, as described, is that the impulsive force of the waterupon the wheel by its direct and also reactionary influence is increased. The tendency of the water where it enters the wheel is to follow a line tangential to the curve of the float; but, as it is controlled by the floats, it is deflected from this line, an d,following the sweep of the floats, leaves the wheel upon a line tangential to the curve of its course through the wheel in the'opposite direction. The effect of the wator upon the wheel, as expressed by the power given out by the wheel, will always be in exact proportion, to the approximation, which these directions of impulse and reaction make to a line tangential to the periphery of the wheel. lf, therefore,'in the case of two wheels of this class of equal diameters, the angle made by the lines of directions of impulse and reaction in. one is more acute'than in the other, the percentage of useful effect of the water -'w.ill be in favor of the one where these directions of forces makethe more acute aiigle'with each other, for the reason'then in this case the resultant would coincidemore nearly with a line tangent to the periphery.-

In Fig. 5 the direction of the wat'er through the wheel is indicated in dotted lines by the angle a: y z, and in the drawing of the Boyden or Fourneyron wheel by 'an angle similarly lettered, the angle in. the former case being only' sixty degrees, while in the latter it is ninety-two degrees. Again, in Figs. 6 and 7, sometimes known as the J oilval and tont-aine F wheels, the water is introduced upon the top of the wheel, and where abetter opportunity .is given for: the introduction of this principle the angle before mentioned is reduced to forty degrees. Now, the increase of power obtained from a wheel like that shown in Fig. 2, and on a larger scale in Fig. 5, over the wheel shown in Fig. 3, is, according to approved formulas for calculating the effect of water, about fifteen per cent.

Another feature which characterizes my improved wheel consists in the use of a series of water-gates, a a a, arranged in pairs of equal size opposite to each other, and controlled by the rods R R, but each pair being of different size from any other pair in the series, the benefit of which is that the regulator can be connected with any pair of gates, which, under the conditions upon which the wheel is run- 9 ning, and the variations of the load, willbe ot' The first advantage, which result'sfroin this" sufficient size to give uniformity of speed, and all the remaining gates be allowed to be open to their full capacity.

Another feature of my invention consists in the manner in which the wheel and its spindle is suspended, so as to diminish the friction due tothe weight as much as possible. The shaft or spindle D is attached to the plate E in the form of an inverted cone. The conical surface of the plate E rests upon the frictionwheels W W W, which are mounted on axles set in an equilateral frame, H, as shown in Fig-9. In the center of the frame -is the collar I, through which the spindle passes, but with sufiicient freedom to turn within it. A friction-carriage is thus iormed. The treads of the wheels W W W'rpn upon another conical plate, J, identical with. the plate E, but

reversed in position, which rests upon the framing-plates K, so that theitwo plates E and J present the figure of two cones with their apexestoward each other, and separated by the friction-wheels W W W, the inclination of whose surfaces is measured by the angle which the surfaces of the two cones make with each other. v

' What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is--- 1.. A series of gates, at a a, arranged in pairs,

' whether opposite to each other or otherwise,

the several pairs being of unequal size, substantially as described, for the purposes specified.

I 2. In combination, the friction-carriage, I

Fig. 8, with its conical rolls, and the spindle D, with its conical bearings, constructed substantially as described, and for the purposes specified.

' OLNEY HARKNESS.

Witnesses: I

' THos. H. PEABODY.

J. H; 'STINESS. 

